They That Walked in Darkness Have Seen a Great Light
By Pastor Matt Black
August
06, 2006
Lord's Day Evening
Isaiah 9:1-3
Introduction: Open your Bible to Isaiah 9. Tonight we look to the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. It was prophesied over and over in the Old Testament. God would come in human flesh. Genesis 3:15 was the first promise after the fall. The seed of the woman would come to save the human race from the dreadful depravity of the human race. The serpent’s head, the head of satan himself would be crushed by the Messiah, even though satan would bruise the Saviour’s heel. Christ made a an open show of Satan and “destroyed the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). In the cross, Christ crushed Satan’s power as Colossians 2:15 says that by His cross He “spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” At the crucifixion Christ is most certainly wounded and bruised, but what is He bruised for? Isaiah 53:5 “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity would be born into the world of men! That is the promise of the Old Testament. Over and over again, the promises are given. We come to another of those promises tonight. Remember God promised to send Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14)? God would be with us, and come in human flesh. The Word would be “made flesh” and dwell among us (John 1:14). In our text tonight we are looking at how Christ came into this world. This is one of the most fascinating texts in the entire Old Testament. So the title of tonight’s message is “They That Walked in Darkness Have Seen a Great Light”. Let’s stand and read Isaiah 9:1-7.
We come to the first verse and we remember the great destruction that would come to the northern tribes. Assyria would decimate and take captive the northern ten tribes. This would happen in two waves. These two waves of destruction are described in this first verse. Isaiah 9:1, “Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. Notice the place that would suffer the most destruction is “Galilee of the nations.” The most intense destruction was centered on Galilee.
So there would be a first vexation and then later on a more grievous vexation by the Assyrian army.
The first wave of the Assyrian army and the resulting captivity of northern Israel is a lighter punishment. We read in 2 Kings 15:29 of the first wave of war against northern Israel. Tiglathpilesar would, “In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.”
The same account is given in 1 Chronicles 5:25. Tiglathpilesar III was also known as Pul. Tiglathpilesar is the king’s Assyrian name, and Pul his Babylonian name. We find out that the northern tribes were immersed in idol worship and immorality, so God was going to take their name away as a people, and transport them to that pagan Assyrian nation. Look at 1 Chronicles 5:25, “And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them. 26 And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria [SPEAKING OF THE SAME KING], and he [THIS ONE KING] carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.”
History records that the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Mannasseh were carried away in the first Assyrian invasion. About 20 years later, there was another invation by another Assyrian king, Shalmanezar, who would utterly destroy the entire northern ten tribes.
Later on Shalmanezer took the rest of the northern tribes into captivity. Turn over to 2 Kings 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Earthly speaking, nothing could be worse now for Israel. It has ceased to be a people at Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 7:8.
But on this backdrop of darkness and despair, we see an amazing promise. Look at verse 2, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” What is the location of where this light will shine? Look back at verse 1. They were afflicted worse “the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.’
Galilee is called “the way of the sea, because Galilee was adjoining to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and on one side it was bounded by the course of the Jordan. It is called Galilee of the Gentiles, not only because it was contiguous to Tyre and Sidon, but because it contained a great multitude of Gentiles, who were mingled with the Jews; for from the time that Solomon granted this country to King Hiram, (1Kings 9:11), it could never be subdued in such a manner as not to have some part of it possessed by the Gentiles.”[1]
Galilee of the Gentiles is where the light would shine. The people in darkness there would see great light!
“The place of occurrence is important. The location is precise. Zebulun and Naphtali were the tribal areas immediately to the west of the Sea of Galilee. Thse areas were the first to suffer from Assyrian attack.”[2]
It had
been beaten down by Assyrian armies, and later it was further trampled on by Babylon, Greece and the Roman armies. By the time Christ is born into the world,
“Galilee is regarded as a despised district from which no prophet was ever
expected to come”[3] The
Pharisees said in John 7:52, “Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth
no prophet.” I guess they must have missed Isaiah 9:2! It doesn’t
get much clearer than that!
Turn over to the fulfillment of Isaiah 9:2 in Matthew 4. Here we see that God in the flesh, Immanuel has entered into humanity. Look at verse 12, “Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; 13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: 14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; 16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Yes it is in Galilee that “the light shined”! Jesus’ ministry in Galilee was a direct fulfillment of this prophecy. Jesus stilled the raging wind and waves in Galilee, and He walked on the surface of that water on the Sea of Galilee. He raised from death a widow’s son at Nain, and turned the water into wine at Cana in Galilee.[4] The darkness had broken on the ten tribes of Israel—the light had dawned!
The light of the world was shining forth. This is the prophecy here.
Then we come to verse 3, “Thou hast multiplied the nation, Oh how Christ multiplied the nation! All those with the same faith as Abraham are Jews. Galatians 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. True Jews are not those with circumcised flesh, but those with a circumcised heart! Those are not my words, but Paul’s. Turn over to Romans 2.
Romans 2:28-29, “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
We see the same again in Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
When Peter speaks of believers, he speaks to them as if he were talking to the nation Israel, because as Paul says, the church is the New Israel, the “Israel of God.” Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:”
Christ multiplied the nation by coming into the world and something happened.
(3) and not increased the joy: This is a difficult text. The word “not” in Hebrew could be translated as a possessive or as a negative. The two ways this passage could read is “and increased it’s joy” referring to the nation people who have seen a great light. The other proper translation would be what we have here, and in this context it would have the idea of the suffering that believers go through in this life. Though we have joy in God, none of our joy is bound up in this earth. Look over at Matthew 5: 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Now the enemy of the Kingdom of God is not Assyria! It is those who do not know the King!
We ought to be like the apostles in Acts 5:41 who rejoiced “that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.”
(3) they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
The rejoicing that Christ brings to the life will be like those who joy in the harvest. Though this life is filled with tears, remember that “they that sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Psalm 126:5).
Conclusion: Is Christ your joy tonight? Is He a light to you when all is darkness? Though the world at times seems dim, do you joy in Christ? Do you know the joy of praying with a broken heart? Do you know what it is to sing for an hour to the Lord out of sheer joy? Are you spending time with Christ and walking with Him daily? Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Are you walking in darkness? If so, let Christ be your light!!
Closing Hymn: 196 Joy to the World